Mexican tomato producers fight to compete in the US

The Congress of Mexico has asked the Government to establish conditions in the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), so that Mexican tomato producers can compete in that market.

The Center for Studies for Sustainable Rural Development and Food Sovereignty (CEDRSSA) of the Chamber of Deputies stated that the preliminary agreement between the United States and Mexico establishes that bilateral trade would continue reciprocally without tariffs; in addition, the proposal to set a temporary nature for shipments of certain agricultural food products was withdrawn. However, the tomato agreement between the Department of Commerce and the Mexican producers / exporters, which has been in place since 1996 and that committed national producers to adjust their prices according to certain reference levels, was not included in the agreement.

The document entitled Tomato production and trade in Mexico, which was submitted to the Mexican government, indicates that this agreement would suspend an anti-dumping investigation that was initiated because the US producers alleged that Mexican tomatoes were sold at lower prices than fair prices, which harmed them. “If the agreement on the tomato is not renewed, as on other occasions, the investigation could be resumed and there could be greater obstacles to the sale of Mexican tomatoes in that market, such as tariffs, quotas, and others,” the legislative document states.

The CEDRSSA said the tomato was one of the country’s main agricultural food export products, so “the agreement is important to give continuity to sales to the United States, which is also our main market.” The CEDRSSA argues that tomato sales to the US grew in value by 506 percent, from 304 million dollars in 1993 to 1.842 billion dollars in 2017. However, it points out that Canada’s shipments to that market grew more rapidly with an increase of 4,800 percent from 1993 to 2017. Therefore, CEDRSSA “suggests establishing the conditions for tomato producers to compete in the northern market, promoting the renewal of the agreement on this product, which will allow us to continue sending the product even with the price limitations.” Source: Xinhua.net